[r6rs-discuss] [Formal] It is not clear what negating 0.0 produces

[John Cowan]

Paul Schlie scripsit:

> Anything otherwise simply implements inconsistent algebraic semantics,
> and should not be sanctioned (as regardless of the behavior of existing
> implementations, the existence of such inconsistencies should not be
> considered prima-facie evidence of their legitimacy)

We are talking about flonums here.  Flonums implement IEEE semantics,
not algebraic ones; in IEEE semantics, such a simple statement as

a + b /= a, a > 0, b > 0

does not hold.

Talking about anything else is beating the air.

-- 
John Cowan  cowan at ccil.org  http://ccil.org/~cowan
The competent programmer is fully aware of the strictly limited size of his own
skull; therefore he approaches the programming task in full humility, and among
other things he avoids clever tricks like the plague.  --Edsger Dijkstra